In the work TRUE STORY by the actors and performers Jonathan Bonnici (UK) and Satya Bhabha (US), the audience is invited into a bare stage space and seated on chairs in the middle of the room, while the two performers begin their oral storytelling, involving the stage space in pre-written fictional stories. A creaking chair and the black-painted theatre auditorium turn into something else in the story. The meta level becomes a point of fascination for the audience, who, like the creaking chair and the dark stage, are drawn into the narrative as material. The audience are involved as co-creators, participants and spectators, and the boundary between stage and auditorium is dissolved, as is the boundary between fiction and reality. Satya Bhabha and Jonathan Bonnici explore the narrative as a cohesive force, while uncovering the active role that each member of the audience plays in it.

Jonathan Bonnici and Satya Bhabha met in connection with a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Jonathan holds a BA in acting from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, UK. Satya is a graduate of Yale University, USA.

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